Babysitting Cally

Tabitha and Gareth had the absolute temerity to decide to go out. Together. At night!!!  All Freyja's fault - she had bought them tickets to a gig as their Christmas present.

Now obviously you can't go out and leave a not-quite 11 month old baby on her own all evening.  People would frown upon this, even if you shut her in a secure cupboard.  And as to what Cally herself would have to say about it - well that doesn't bear thinking upon.

Freyja, the instigator of this mass breakout, was unavailable for Cally sitting duties.  She had taken herself off, back down to London. And so it fell to The Builder and me to look after Cally while her parents were gadding about.

It happened that the date of the gig fell upon a day off for me.  So The Builder and I went out for lunch at The Bull's Head in Holymoorside which we hadn't been to before. (I had a Groupon voucher for it, which was nearly out of date. Question: Why do I buy Groupon vouchers and then sit on them for nearly the whole six months validity before using them?)  And it was really rather a nice lunch. A beautiful broccoli and brie soup for me, followed by a nicely fried chicken fillet with a stilton sauce. The Builder enjoyed his garlic mushrooms and pork steak with apple fritters. And then we trundled into Sheffield to take up our Cally Caring Duties.

So. We waved goodbye to Taffa, who went off to meet Gaz when he finished work. We had biscuits and some milk. We watched Baby Jake on the telly, and ate a few more biscuits. We talked to Grandpa Tony and Grandma Stella on the laptop, and Cally showed them how she can dance. We watched a program with a yellow panda with green eyes on the telly and played with some toys. We talked to Lindsey, Emily and Lucy the Dog on the laptop and Cally showed them how she can laugh and sing. Cally and The Builder had a lovely story. Cally had a "delicious" green sludge for dinner which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy, and then she watched some Mickey Mouse on the telly. Then she had a night time bottle and went off to bed happy and cheery.

All was well. The Builder and I turned the telly over to something slightly more grown up.

At about 20 past 11, Tabitha sent me a text message to say they were on the bus and would be home in five minutes.

At which point Cally woke up - although how she knew is a mystery - she can't possibly have heard my phone!!!

By the time Tabitha and Gareth came home five minutes later she was screaming hysterically and was a distinct puce colour!!!!!  I was going to try to persuade Tabitha that Cally had been like that all evening. But she said she wouldn't have believed me - both The Builder and I were laughing when she and Gareth came in!!

So a good night was had by all, especially by Tabitha and Gareth who had gone out together for the first time at night since Cally was born!